Monday, 26 November 2012

Tarte-al Recall

Torta Salata Vegetale alla Provenzale

Provencale Vegetable & Feta Cheese Tart

My first visit to the Provence and the beautiful South of France was a truly wonderful experience! The only other visit to France I had made to that point, was one of those typically touristic Paris trips, with "haricots vert" avec this and "haricots vert" avec that in faux-fancy tourist menus. As an old friend of mine used to say, "non e non e non!"In the Provence, I experienced a whole different style of cuisine, down to earth, rustic, unpretentious and delicious! None of those fancy butter and white wine sauces, the fussy, oh-so-artistic presentations and the ludicrously luxurious ingredients- but just good, plain, home cooking. In a French kind of way of course...

I remember eating a tarte, not a quiche, bound together by a cheesy egg batter (which would also have been delicious), but a simple mix of freshly cooked vegetables in a pie crust. And thinking "wow!" The flavors were so fresh and distinctive and the ingredients all had a little bit of bite and texture left to them. And they just tasted of... well... exactly what they were! I loved it! I loved the way that all of the individual flavors did not merge into one new flavor, which as I already mentioned in the case of a classic quiche CAN also be delicious- but that the experience of eating it was like a tasting menu all around the garden- accentuated of course by the typical herbs of the region. It was more than just tasty it was really fun to eat!Anyway, I decided to use egg plant as the main ingredient in my tarte this evening... mainly because my colleague Peggy brought me a HUGE eggplant this morning... after I had already bought one of my own this weekend! Oh well, I thought, I will save the larger one for a Sicilian dish I have in mind for later in the week, and use the other, smaller one along with some peppers and zucchini and make myself a tarte of my own and I made it like this:

Step one was to turn on the oven, to get it nice and hot to bake that puff-pastry crust. And no, I didn't make the pastry myself!What I did do, was to dice the egg plant, some red, yellow and green peppers, a little zucchini and a small shallot and to slice a half stick of celery too. I started off by browning the egg plant in a dry non-stick pan. Sounds weird, but works! The egg plant begins to brown nicely all by itself- and after 2-3 minutes of this, I began to add the other ingredients- the celery, peppers and shallot went in next, along with some finely chopped garlic and a splash of olive oil. After 2-3 minutes in the oil, when they were beginning to brown, I deglazed the pan with a little white wine and a splash of water. I seasoned with salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar and a good pinch of Herbs de Provence. Once everything had been sautéed for 9-10 minutes and was beginning to soften nicely, I turned off the heat and turned my attention to the pastry!I lined my pie dish with greaseproof paper, so that I could lift the whole thing out later and slice it more easily, then laid in the base first, a little larger than needed, so that it overlapped and formed the outer edges of the pie casing. I then cut strips of pastry and placed them around the outside edge,working from the bottom-up and adding one strip after another until the outside was double thickness all the way to the top. I then spooned in the vegetable mix and pressed it down firmly. Next step was to dice some Feta cheese and halve a few cherry tomatoes and press these into the top layer of the tarte. I seasoned with a hint more salt and pepper and popped it into the oven for 15 minutes at 350°F.After 15 minutes, I fetched the tarte out, gave it a sprinkle of fresh thyme and a drizzle of honey and popped it back into the oven, under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to give it a glaze and a yummy sweet touch to accent the Feta cheese and the eggplant... very simple indeed!This was wonderful piping-hot and was small and so delicious that I finished it off in one go... but you know-I am sure it would have tasted equally good served cold in the morning. Alas, I will never know for sure... unless I make another one of these some time. And you know what? Somehow I think I will...

About Me

My name is Francesco Strazzanti.
Designer by trade, cook by damnation... a curse and a blessing at the same time.
I dedicate this blog to those of you, who like me, CAN cook, but do not like to cook from a recipe. You and I, we like to pick up ideas and try out our own versions of them, or to re-create great meals we have enjoyed elsewhere. We like the feeling of having done it by ourselves. We don't want to read recipes and feel like we have never cooked before in our lives- we want to see and read and be inspired to do our own thing...
So to all of you people out there like me... and I know you are out there- this blog is for you! Enjoy!
Francesco